Tej couldn't shake the image of the missing woman from his mind. The article had given him a name—Maria, a woman in her early twenties who had vanished without a trace, leaving behind her newborn baby. The timing was too perfect, the details too close to his own story to be a coincidence. But why had no one ever told him about this? Why had it taken him so long to find even the smallest scrap of information?
The questions gnawed at him, eating away at his sanity. Tej knew he had to find out more, but the thought of what he might discover terrified him. What if Maria really was his mother? What if she hadn't abandoned him, but had been taken away, leaving him at the mercy of the Ruths? And if that was true, what did it mean for everything he thought he knew?
The days passed in a blur of anxiety and fear. Tej began to withdraw even further from the people around him. He stopped going to school, stopped answering his friends' calls. His parents were worried, but he assured them everything was fine, lying with a smile as he had so many times before. But inside, the darkness was growing, the lies twisting tighter and tighter around him like a noose.
Tej knew he couldn't keep going like this. He had to find out the truth, even if it destroyed him. He decided to start with the article—he needed to know where Maria had lived, who she had known, and what had happened to her. He spent hours tracking down the details, piecing together the fragments of her life. Slowly, a picture began to emerge.
Maria had been living on the streets for months before she disappeared, moving from shelter to shelter, struggling to survive. The article mentioned a few places she had been seen—a rundown shelter in the city's poorer district, a soup kitchen where she had volunteered, and a small park where she had spent most of her days. Tej decided to start with the park.
It was a cold, gray afternoon when Tej made his way to the park. The trees were bare, their branches twisted and gnarled against the sky. A few people were scattered around, but the park was mostly empty, its desolation matching Tej's mood. He wandered through the park, his eyes scanning the ground, searching for some kind of sign, something that would connect him to the past.
After hours of wandering, Tej found himself standing in front of an old, weathered bench. It looked like it hadn't been used in years, the wood cracked and faded. He sat down, his heart heavy with despair. Was this where his mother had sat? Had she held him here, cradled him in her arms as she tried to figure out what to do? The thought sent a shiver down his spine.
As Tej sat there, lost in thought, an old woman approached him. She was hunched over, her face lined with age, but her eyes were sharp and bright. She stopped in front of the bench, studying Tej for a moment before speaking.
"You look lost, boy," she said, her voice raspy but kind.
Tej looked up, startled by her sudden appearance. "I… I guess I am," he admitted.
The woman nodded, her gaze lingering on the bench. "This was Maria's bench. She used to sit here every day, watching the world go by. I haven't seen anyone sit here since she disappeared."
Tej's heart skipped a beat. "You knew her?" he asked, his voice trembling.
The woman nodded again. "I did. She was a sweet girl, but life wasn't kind to her. She did the best she could, though, especially for that baby of hers. She loved him more than anything."
Tej's throat tightened. "What happened to her?"
The old woman sighed, her eyes clouding with sadness. "No one knows for sure. One day, she was just… gone. Some people say she ran off, couldn't handle the pressure. Others say something happened to her, something bad. But I know one thing for certain—she would never have left that baby of hers. Not by choice."
Tej's hands clenched into fists. "But… where did the baby go?"
The woman's gaze softened as she looked at Tej. "He was found, taken in by a good family, I heard. But I don't know much more than that. Just rumors, really."
Tej felt a cold, sinking feeling in his chest. Could it be true? Could he really be Maria's son, taken in by the Ruths after she disappeared? The thought was too much to bear. But if it was true, then everything he had known, everything he had believed, was a lie.
The old woman patted Tej's hand, her touch surprisingly warm. "You take care of yourself, boy. The past has a way of catching up to us, but don't let it drag you down."
Tej nodded numbly, watching as the woman slowly walked away, disappearing into the gray afternoon. He felt like he was on the edge of a precipice, teetering between two worlds—the world he had always known, and the dark, twisted reality that was beginning to unfold before him.
As he left the park, Tej couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible had happened to Maria, something that had been buried for years. He knew he had to keep digging, keep searching for the truth, no matter how painful it might be. But with every step he took, the lies grew heavier, the darkness closing in around him.